Kings Of Convenience: Quiet Is The New Loud (Vinyl LP)

Quiet Is The New Loud is the debut album by Norwegian duo Kings of Convenience. Originally released in January 2001, the album features the singles “Winning a Battle, Losing the War” and “Toxic Girl”.

Emerging in 2001 on a small wave of hype touting Norway as a new musical hotbed, Quiet Is The New Loud was startling in its earnestness, even to ears that had been softened by the likes of Belle and Sebastian. Where that Scottish band tempers its twee-ness with clever, winking wordplay, Erlend Oye and Eirik Glambek Boe are more akin to a latter-day Simon and Garfunkel or a couple of Nick Drakes who are lucky to have found each other.

Disarmingly sensitive, poetic tracks such as “Parallel Lines” (“What’s the immaterial substance that envelops two/That one perceives as hunger and the other as food”) are sung by the duo in honeyed harmonies with a pleasantly laid-back delivery. Oye and Boe eschew drums on all but two tracks (upbeat highlights “Toxic Girl” and “Failure“), simply using layered guitars and the occasional string, piano, or trumpet flourish to accent the hushed power of their songs. The overall effect is one of bedroom introspection, well suited to their nostalgic, inward-looking lyrics.

1. Winning A Battle, Losing The War
   
2. Toxic Girl
   
3. Singing Softly To Me
   
4. I Don’t Know What I Can Save You From
   
5. Failure
   
6. The Weight Of My Word
   
7. The Girl From Back Then
   
8. Leaning Against The Wall
   
9. Little Kids
10. Summer On The West Hill
11. The Passenger